U.S. Slopestyle Mountainboard Championships – June 30th 2007
Echo Mountain, CO
By Dave Stiefvater

“We were too spent to even stand up but adrenaline kept us on our feet. We had built the most insane freestyle course ever seen... and you could hear everyone talking. Mixed emotions ran around the course as riders checked in and geared up. Top riders from all over the nation had shown up. This event was definitely going to raise the freestyle bar.

The course was huge about 1/3 mile long raging down the side of Echo Mountain, overlooking Idaho Springs. It started off with a kicker over a ditch, down to a pair of flat rails, then a picnic table and a flat rail side by side. Leading into another kicker that ran out into a huge turn with mild rocks, followed by 2 rainbow rails and a kinked rail all ending out with a nice overlook booter jump.

Riders stepped up to their object of choice and got things started. With almost 75 contestants in attendance, riders littered the hill. At first they struggled, this was new to a lot of these riders. Big step-down kickers, 6-foot high rails, rails and kickers over ditches, all at warp speed over rugged terrain. Not only was this slopestyle this was "Mountain" Boarding.

The event kicked off just after noon. There were 5 categories, Pro Men, Pro Women, Open, Masters, and later on ended up being a Super Juniors division.

Everyone gave it there best on the first round. Just making it top to bottom without wrecking was difficult, speed and the variety of terrain made it hard to put it all together.

But after round one something happened. Someone must have been talking trash but out came the big stuff. Big spins, switch spins, flips, rodeos, spin in and out of every rail and all the contortions in between. The crowd constantly getting sprayed by dust, but were relentless in their cheering and support.

 Dave Sansone (CO) who hadn't stepped on a board in over 2 years, put on an amazing performance, throwing down huge for a 3rd place in Men's Pro. AJ Lawson (WV) who had been a rare site at US events in the last few years showed why he is still a major contender on the US scene taking a solid 2nd Place in Men’s Pro. Riding the hill like it was snow or a dream Baron Frierson (NC) put the most solid line together using all the objects top to bottom and doing it with ease.

But the Open class riders may have had the most fun of the day showing the Pros that there will be some talent to contend with in the upcoming years.

And a big shout out to Dirty Blonde jumping back on it after 2 years, and to all the ladies "dirty girls do it in the berm" they tore it up.

The old men who may need walkers to get up the hill but boards to get down. Super junior class?? If you have only been riding for a few weeks and you can bust those tricks… Fear the future.

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